Week 225 – Shopping

“Hey, Darlin, you can come out now.”

The sound of the voice had Sarah sobbing in relief, and she ran to the door, threw back the locks, ripped the door open, then threw herself into the arms of the one person she seemed to trust.

“You came,” she said, pressing her face against his chest.

“You called,” Cooper said, his voice light and soothing despite the fact she knew he had probably been at the police station as long as she had, or perhaps longer, and he had to be exhausted. Yet he’d come here because she’d refused to open the bedroom door for anyone else.

She hadn’t meant to cause him extra trouble, she knew she was nothing to him, but she had been thrown into some nightmare and Cooper was the only person who made her feel safe.

“Thank you,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him hard.

“You’re welcome.” He hugged her back, and didn’t seem in a hurry to release her so she didn’t move away. “Someone broke in here, huh?”

“He was here waiting for me,” she said with a shudder.

“I don’t like it. Thats twice today you’ve been caught up in something dangerous.”

“I don’t like it either,” Sarah said with another shudder.

“You need to tell the cops what happened and then I’m taking you to a hotel. Something feels … wrong,” Cooper said.

She had the same feeling.

Like somehow what had happened at the haunted house was related to someone breaking into her house. Did the killer think she’d seen something incriminating?

An hour later, with a bag packed with clothes to last her a few days, Cooper helped her into the passenger seat of his car.

“So, Sarah, tell me something about yourself,” Cooper said, shooting her one of his easy smiles.

“Well, I’m a bit of a scaredy cat, but I love my job as a teacher, and candy, I love candy, oh, and I absolutely loathe shopping, I buy everything online so I don’t have to go into a store if I can help it.”

Cooper chuckled. “I’m with you on the loathing shopping.”

“Thank you for coming, I know I shouldn’t have asked for you, but I trust you,” she admitted.

“Its really no worries, Sarah, I couldn’t stop thinking about you anyway.”

She gasped. “You couldn’t?”

“Nope.”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you either.”

Coop sighed, then took his eyes off the road to meet her gaze. “I don’t think it was a coincidence that I found that woman’s body,” he told her. “And I don’t think its a coincidence that someone was waiting in your house to kill you.”

“What do you think is going on?” Sarah asked even though she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the question.

“I think someone is messing with me.”

Before she could say anything else headlights flared behind them, and then something rammed into Cooper’s car.